Is Schmeling's victory over Louis underrated?

The best win in Heavyweight history. Louis was seen as unbeatable at the time and Schmeling, past prime came in and outboxed him in a clear decision.

 

Serious students of boxing and those familiar with Louis and Schmeling will recognize Schmeling's strategy, preparation, and ultimate victory as a brilliantly executed plan. Yet it was a hard-fought victory. In Schmeling's autobiography, Max commends Louis' gameness and conditioning (in spite of Joe's reported lackadaisical training and diversions.) Max took a solid drubbing for the first three rounds and his left eye was nearly shut by the time he landed that game-changing right cross in the fourth round. Still, Joe came back and won the sixth round. As the bout progressed, some of the dazed Louis' punches went low and Schmeling was concerned that this might deprive him of a well-earned victory. Joe had only been fighting pro for just shy of two years but he was already being seen as an all-time great. After his KO of Max Baer he was considered the uncrowned champion. Schmeling, who was four years removed from the championship, had been stopped by Baer and lost to Steve Hamas, a loss he had since avenged. Max was considered to be another former champion on Joe's already impressive resume. Few gave him any chance, one notable exception being Jack Johnson, who also noticed the flaw that Max saw, and he predicted a Schmeling victory.

Part of Schmeling's strategy was based on the belief that successes had come so easily for Louis that he would be overconfident and underestimate Schmeling. Even at that point probably only a handful of history's heavyweights such as Johnson could have recognized Louis' flaw and capitalized on it. Max made the most of this window of opportunity.

 

It's a hell of a win no matter how you slice it. The man played out a great game plan, showed sturdiness, heart and effective power. I'm gonna watch this one again soon.

 

There is a new super cut of the fight on YouTube. It removes a lot of the brilliant strategy Max employed in the fight such as crowding Louis and falling into him after a punch to smother his counters. But it does look great if you just want to see the pure action of the fight. And the quality is superb.

 

Nice post bro.

 

He actually KO'd him flat on the mat.

 

Personally i couldn't rate this the greatest win ever tho it's up there. Tho Louis had certainly racked up the bouts and destroyed some contenders he was still 9 fights off being champ (including Max) tho he was a huge favorite over Max.

It's no knock on this ATG victory as the intangibles are great.....Schmeling aging, Louis on a streak, it was dominating, it was incredibly meticulous in it's planning and execution among a host of other things. There's a helluva lot of great wins in boxing tho.

 

Schmeling knocked him out.

 

lol yea was my mistake.

 

We all do it at one time or another.